Phase 5: Allocation and Planning
In this phase, I am taking the time to work out exactly how I want to move forward. It’s pretty easy to get caught up in the ideas and slam them down on paper. Only when you go to plug it all in, you find out you can’t fit nearly half of what is there. That sucks. Nothing is more frustrating than having to throw away hard work in the 11th hour. So let’s fend of analysis paralysis and just key in on the important stuff.
Deciding on Weight
Every project has a focal point. Going back to my entry last year, you can see that I focused a lot on the factions. I wanted the interplay of factions to create a larger amount of content than the actual pages could contain. Everything was developed around that weight. A large section of what I wrote was dedicated to NPCs, creatures, etc. Even the map was built with the factions in mind, creating two distinct areas where the two groups originated.
This year, I am shifting the weight to the locations. Because I don’t have space to put a ton of maps, I want to heavily favor the ‘final’ map. The other areas will be generated procedurally via roll tables. The final map is going to have some serious space dedicated to it and I am going to hint at the ability of whoever runs the game to plug other small maps into different areas if they desire.
Factions are going to be simpler here, but will be the second weight area. I decided to add a mechanic in the spirit of the old NES games via a score! Instead of being some arbitrary number though, I’m going to use it in connection with an NPC. Doing some things adds points, doing others subtracts them. Get in good enough and you might get some useful information. Annoy the person and you start to find him doing things to hinder your progress. Should create a nice bit of unique fun. The down side is it will eat a little space, so I need to be prepared for that!
Page Dedication
Since I already decided to use art, I will have the cover page be entirely art-centric. I’ll make use of art elements to convey information about the setting, a sense of the NES 8-bit vibe, and vital data such as the title, author, and player level expectations.
I need a two page spread for my map, plus at least 1 more page for referencing that map. Maybe 2 pages. For now, let’s call it 4 pages in total so there is buffer. I can always go less, but that will be my maximum.
1 page is going to be a sort of title/inspiration page. A small blurb about the inspiration here. If space allows, I may start the backdrop information as well. This may bleed into a second page, but we will account for that later.
NPCs are going to be limited, so 1 page is fine there. For monsters, since I need to add a lot of elements, let’s dedicate 2 pages to that. So now we’re at 9 of our 16 pages! Already half gone and we aren’t done yet.
Let’s say 1 page each dedicated to unmapped areas. A jungle, a canyon, and a set of volcanic caves. 12 of 16 down. Add another 2 pages for unique treasures and spells will bring us to 14 pages. These last 2 pages we will save for now. They are our buffer since story elements may run over or fitting the score idea in may take some space. If we’re lucky, we end up with 1 entirely free page when we finish all the vital stuff and have some wiggle room to create something extra.
Art Elements
Okay, I said art will be doing the heavy lifting, but not all the work. I did add some things here and there and will continue to sprinkle them in for vibe elements. Things like the score mechanic or how I intend to convey the Idol of Ab-Ba should help. Let’s start with that cover.
In many of the instruction manuals, there are two types of art. In-game art, showing exactly what you will see on the screen is the first. The second is detailed representations of the little pixels. Sometimes the drawings would be vastly different from the actual game play, but it was meant to bridge the gap. You’d see the detailed picture and when you saw the little sprite, you were imagining that image.
Tabletop doesn’t suffer from sprites, but having a single well-rendered bit of art does two things here. First, it is going to ‘feel’ like the covers of the instruction manuals. Information is going to be added in a way to imply the old style game-info. Art itself will show things those charts can’t. I want the cover to do for the charts what it used to do for the sprites.
With the cover out of the way, let’s consider the sprites. Rendered faces often were a 32×32 or 40×40 pixel square or something similar. You got your ‘detailed’ image in dialog or cut scenes and then the smaller sprites were done in the same color palettes. Actually, let’s backtrack first.
Color Usage
Colors! The old NES was limited in memory space. There were a total of 64 colors to choose from, with 8 of those being black/transparent. You had 4 color sets for sprites and 4 color sets for background tiles. Every sprite set had 3 colors to work with along with one already allocated to transparency. The backgrounds got 4 colors, but all 4 sets had to share one color in them. In essence, you had 25 colors to work with here. You could also dim the red, green, or blue in the system to slightly alter colors as well.
Tiles are 8 x 8 blocks of pixels, generally paired in 2×2 sets. This led to a misconception that there were 16 bits instead of 8. On the card, you had a total of 2 – 16 x 16 tile blocks to work with. Background tiles could be rotated to increase the number of uses according to some people, though this may have been in later upgraded cartridges. While you could mirror (flip) sprites, you couldn’t mirror tiles! Some of this tiling work can create multiple items from the same set of tiles. Bushes and trees from the same tile set for example.
Any set of backgrounds can use a palette from the background sets. Any sprite can use a palette set from the sprite sets. They can’t mix and match though. You only got to use one palette at a time. What this means is that if you want your pixel art to look authentic, you need to abide by these rules.
Color Cheat Codes
One of the neat little tricks for old NES games you might have noticed is that games with in the dark areas would look better. Night zones often came across as if they had more happening. This was because they were able to use negative space and the black was a sort of implied visual. Your brain fills in the things hidden in shadows. The shadows saved on memory because you didn’t need to make tiles all mesh seamlessly. It could also be used in well-lit areas as a way to connect borders and imply less rigid lines.
Shadowdark, as one would already know, is all about dark. It’s something to keep in mind when using the 8-bit elements for art. Will I use it? Don’t know. Could I though? Absolutely! Beyond the dark, also remember that contrast is your ally. With a limited palette, blending isn’t going to happen nearly so much. Sharp contrasts create iconic looks.
Maximizing Value
Okay, so I think this is getting a bit long. Let me just finish with saying that you want to maximize your value. With space being limited, I need to really make every bit count. It’s going to take more than a day to work that out. For now, this is enough. Going forward, let’s remember to think of some great tie-ins. Anywhere the 8-bit can save us space and do double duty as information and vibe, we need to favor that. Until next time, keep thinking on how you’ll make it all fit together.
